Sam Altman: I traveled across the country to interview 100 Trump supporters | Hacker News Reader

Sam Altman: I traveled across the country to interview 100 Trump supporters

businessinsider.com

22 pointszenpaul12 comments

Dupe of this huge recent discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13697771

It's hard to say from reading the article, and I may have a hair-trigger these days for left-wing hatred and intolerance, but it's genuinely hard to tell here whether Sam really wants to listen to people, or to convince them to adopt his political position. Questions like "What would convince you not to vote for him again?" come off as pushy and leading in this environment.

We have such a strong divide in our country these days. I think we should all ask ourselves if we're working to heal the divide or increase it. It's very easy to call others intolerant. It's not so easy to let go of the intolerance in your own heart.

Well, the article is titled "I'm a Silicon Valley liberal..."

There were a few points where he mentioned how against these people he is, but at the same time I found the overall article to be fairly well balanced and not attacking.

Actually, I wanted to know something similar, but my question was, "whose shoes can Donald Trump NOT pi$s on?". It just doesn't seem to bother his supporters how rude or offensive he is, they appear to revel in it. No normal person could say or do the things he does. I also want to know, if being offensive to the Pope, a gold star parent, Mexicans, women and others wasn't enough, what on earth would be? When will he be held accountable like the rest of us must be? Honestly, is this just a case of mass jealousy for his ability to be offensive? Is there anything that he can do that he CAN'T get away with?

Interesting. Even with the title, and some of the points he made around "seriously disagreeing with some of these people" I found this to be fairly well balanced and interesting.

This quote really scares me, and something I've considered true since Obama was first elected. Some people are truly scared to share their political opinions in public. We should be worried about that.

"Almost everyone I asked was willing to talk to me, but almost none of them wanted me to use their names — even people from very red states were worried about getting "targeted by those people in Silicon Valley if they knew I voted for him." One person in Silicon Valley even asked me to sign a confidentiality agreement before she would talk to me, as she worried she'd lose her job if people at her company knew she was a strong Trump supporter."

It really make me paranoid wondering how many people I work with are secret Trump Supporters. I wonder if all those people who are not a cultural fit have these disgusting conservative beliefs.

I fit in everywhere I've worked and my political views are on both sides. I'm what I like to call a "think for myself-er".

I don't think cultural fit has as much to do with political views as you think.

Unless they are people who can't separate work and politics.

It seems like half these people are socially liberal. I wonder how they feel now that there have been orders to crack down on marijuana and moves towards making abortion illegal again.

The single issue voter is just impossible to even debate with or discuss with, they've already trapped themselves into voting for one particular party. Then again I suppose you could call me a strong single issue voter. Environment!

So seeing as the current party has actually disclaimed the majority of scientists on this matter saying its nonsense, its hard to debate the merits.

I like that he did this. The extreme polarization of the left vs. right is much more worrisome to me than anything Trump has done (I didn't vote for him.)

I would like to see more respect for people with different views. Much of the blame, I think, comes from polarization in the news media.

Interesting article. I like the raw quotes without any unnecessary commentary by the author, but like ufmace said I do think some of the prompts may have come across as pushy.

I am not a Trump supporter, but I am interested in the ferocity behind his supporters' feelings of (social? economical?) oppression. This quote in particular,

>"Over the last few years, the mainstream left has resorted to name-calling and character assassination, instead of debate, any time their positions are questioned. [...] Intelligent debate has become rare."

has me scratching my head somewhat because I personally recall the last eight years to be almost the exact opposite. Did the GOP not spend eight years under a 'No Compromise pledge'[1] while targeting Obama as their political punching bag?

With regard to the last sentence, was it not Donald Trump himself who devolved the debate to name calling (or 'character assassination', as this respondent might call it)? "Crooked Hillary", "Sleepy [Ben Carson]", "Little Marco", "Lyin' Ted" all come to mind. Or is this what the respondent might consider 'intelligent debate'?

Other responses allude to personal security, particularly this one,

>"We need borders at every level of our society."

and to responses like this I think there's a question of what the term 'conservative' has become in the last eight years. Would 'the party of small government' of the past dared utter this type of sentiment? Or has Obama's presidency (and Trump's campaign) been so damaging to the GOP that their mantra of 'limited government' as defined on their own website[2] has been unexpectedly dissolved.

Maybe this individual isn't a part of the GOP. Or maybe the GOP is out of touch. Or maybe I just live in an echo chamber. Either way, I'm going to be interested to see if the GOP evolves to fit Trump's message, or if it anchors itself with over a dozen fragile candidates whose campaigns are destroyed by a two word catchphrase from a reality TV star.

Either Trump is the strongest conservative in eight years, or the GOP and Democrats are the weakest they've ever been.[3]

1 http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2010/10/28/130895...

2 https://www.gop.com/platform/we-the-people/

3 http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-end-of-a-republican-...

> >"Over the last few years, the mainstream left has resorted to name-calling and character assassination, instead of debate, any time their positions are questioned. [...] Intelligent debate has become rare."

> With regard to the last sentence, was it not Donald Trump himself who devolved the debate to name calling (or 'character assassination', as this respondent might call it)? "Crooked Hillary", "Sleepy [Ben Carson]", "Little Marco", "Lyin' Ted" all come to mind. Or is this what the respondent might consider 'intelligent debate'?

This is exactly why Trump is so popular in some circles - they see the Left as conducting a constant character assassination campaign for decades against a largely impotent Right. Trump is seen as the first guy on the Right in decades who's willing to use the same name-calling and character assassination tactics against the left that they've been using for so long.

I gotta admit, it rings rather hollow to hear left-leaning people complain about how Trump is a name-caller. Where've they been over the last 30 years when the media was busy calling every single Republican candidate racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe? Where were they when anyone opposing any of Obama's policies was called racist? Where were they when all of their people were defending all of their candidates' sins? Donald Trump has his problems for sure, but does it really help anything or "raise the level of debate" to desperately try to tie him to the KKK somehow, which the media spent pretty much the entire campaign doing?

Yes, both sides have a lot of work to do to reduce partisanship in this country. Can we start by asking the Left to stop tolerating and apologizing for all of the hate and intolerance their side spews?

I'll also say that the Trump campaign is certainly erratic and far outside of the mainstream GOP in a number of ways. The results of this depend on how his Presidency goes. If he crashes and burns, it may have little effect. If he's seen as at least moderately successful, it could change the whole Republican party in ways that are hard to predict.

This is the words of a TRUMP supporter!:

>“I'm a Jewish libertarian who's [sic] grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Over the last few years the mainstream left has resorted to name-calling and character assassination, instead of debate, any time their positions are questioned. This atmosphere became extremely oppressive and threatening to people, like myself, who disagreed with many of Obama's policies over the past several years. Intelligent debate has become rare.”

HOW BLIND ARE THESE PEOPLE? What reality are you creating where you cant see how your contradicting yourself with your own words? Trump did not generate one iota of "Intelligent Debate" throughout his campaign, and never rose above the dull level of "Character Assassination"!

Honestly, Please, Show me how Trump has done anything other than fight fire with fire here?

>"[We like him because] he's not politically correct!"

How spiteful! Just because you're beholden to acting with decency in your daily life doesn't mean electing an Indecent person is going to allow you to trample on other peoples rights. No one's going to lay down and be insulted because you're world-view is too narrow to encompass the actual diversity of the planet.

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